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Officials: Transit plan would net steep toll, fare hikes

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
04/04/2013 06:36:20 AM EDT

By Michael Norton

State House News Service

BOSTON -- The $500 million tax plan proposed by legislative leaders to pay for transportation investments will eventually force "steep" fare and toll hikes and will lose the state's federal funds, doubling its share of costs associated with the court-mandated $1.3 billion Green Line Extension, Patrick administration officials indicated Wednesday.

While Gov. Deval Patrick has offered a measured response so far to the plan outlined by Democratic legislative leaders, Assistant Secretary of Capital Finance Scott Jordan was explicit about the plan's impact on Wednesday, telling lawmakers it "fails" to fund the expansion of Boston's South Station and the extension of commuter-rail service to the South Coast and could force the state to pay the full cost of the Green Line extension.

And Transportation Secretary Richard Davey, in a memo obtained by the News Service, warned the plan could lead to shuttered Registry of Motor Vehicles branches, MBTA fare and toll increases, and represents "another short-term Band-Aid" for transportation.

The plan outlined by House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray authorizes new gas, tobacco and business taxes that will provide about a quarter of the revenue Patrick had sought in his more sweeping $1.9 billion tax plan that the governor envisioned fueling growth with education and transportation spending.

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DeLeo and Murray said Tuesday that concerns about overburdening the middle class with tax hikes pushed them toward a scaled-down proposal that raises no new revenue for Patrick's education agenda and rejects Patrick's idea of recalibrating the state's income and sales taxes to produce a more "progressive" tax code.

"It addresses the most pressing problems by providing adequate funding well into the future without asking our residents and businesses to bear too much of the burden," DeLeo said at a press conference with Senate leaders Tuesday, a day before House Democrats began advancing the just-announced DeLeo-Murray plan.

"The Ways and Means plan does not fund the necessary construction, maintenance and rebuilding of the commonwealth's roads, bridges and other infrastructure," Jordan testified before the House Bonding Committee. "Failure to fund these projects will force the residents and employees of the Commonwealth to continue to contend with decaying infrastructure and excessive congestion."

Jordan said the plan offered by legislative leaders also fails to fund "state of good repair" projects at the MBTA, which he said are necessary to secure federal funding for the $1.3 billion Green Line extension, a project where costs are currently scheduled to be split between the state and federal government.

"It is a very expensive project," said Jordan.

Legislative leaders touted their plan as a more palatable alternative to Patrick's proposals, with new tax burdens that will hit taxpayers less hard, but which will produce enough revenue to address the MBTA's fiscal problems, needs of regional transit authorities, and the pricey practice of paying transportation salaries with borrowed funds.

Pressed by committee Chairman Rep. Antonio Cabral to say whether Patrick would sign the tax and transportation bill crafted by legislative leaders, Jordan declined to say either way and added that it would be the governor's decision.

Jordan said the Patrick administration values public safety as its top priority when considering transportation spending and will recalculate its capital spending priorities if the full Legislature adopts the plan outlined Tuesday.

"Honestly we need to go back to the drawing board," Jordan said.

In the wake of questions raised by credit-rating agencies about the governor's tax plan, Jordan defended it and noted the state's high credit rating. Jordan said the administration is committed to keeping debt service below 8 percent of budgeted revenues and to not raising capital spending by more than $125 million per year.

While skeptics have raised questions about the affordability of transportation system expansions in the face of a backlog of repair and maintenance needs, Jordan said the governor's $19 billion transportation bond bill is fiscally prudent. "We wouldn't propose it if we thought we were going to get a (rating) downgrade," he said.

Rep. James Cantwell summed up the sentiment of lawmakers mulling the major tax and borrowing proposals.

"We obviously are all wrestling with the idea of what can we afford," the Marshfield Democrat told Jordan.

"It is too early for me to be very specific," Jordan said, who later added that the proposal by legislative leaders provides enough money to fund six administration bond bills authorizing less than $4 billion but not enough money to pay for the $19 billion transportation bill.

"We can afford all of the bond bills except for the transportation bill without new revenue," Jordan said.

In the memo from Davey to Patrick on Wednesday, Davey warned the public could feel the effects if an "insufficient" revenue plan passes.

"If sufficient revenues to address this gap are not advanced, we must consider options that include weight restrictions on bridges, cessation of projects and the closure of registry branches or other services to create sufficient funding for capital investment," Davey wrote, according to the memo obtained by the News Service, going on to say the plan reflects "an alarming lack of support for fixing our roads, bridges and trains."

Rep. Paul Heroux, D-Attleboro, said he'd reviewed many Department of Transportation documents regarding the proposed $1.8 billion rail service extension to the South Coast and believed the project had not undergone a rigorous review to determine the return on investment. Heroux suggested an "if you build it they will come" mentality among the project's supporters. "There's a lot of group-think going on," he said.

Jordan said, "We look forward to convincing you about that," he said, adding, "We've been studying that and trying to get it permitted for a number of years now.

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